Spelling detectives

Good morning teachers, 

Today I will show you an activity I did with 1st grade to learn spelling. The typical activities we do are: alphabet song, spelling words aloud, hangman game, etc. They are bored to do always the same ones, so this activity is a bit different and mysterious. 

I gave them the following grid where they could see the alphabet and how to spell each letter. 

I remind them the letters on the white line are the "name" of the alphabet letters. Once this was clear I said to them they had to solve a mystery. At this point all the class was attending and interested for the task. (It is really important how you present an activity that can make a great difference for its development and attitude towards it)

I gave them the following example and I explained they had to write the letters by reading the names below. 

They all found the secret message very quickly using the grid or just by memory. Once they finished I asked them to be detectives and to create their own secret message which it will be solved at the end of the class by their classmates. They also wanted to draw a clue. The result was this: 

When everybody had their secret messages I wrote them on the whiteboard and they had to solve them. They had fun, which is important, and they learnt spelling through playing to be detectives.

“Play is the beginning of knowledge.” - George Dorsey

Emma. 

Playing and spelling

Another spelling game which was successful was the one I am explaining today. As teachers we usually teach the alphabet through songs, which is a great resource and it perfectly works, but what happens when we ask our students to spell a word? They usually get stucked when they have to think about how to spell a specific letter, then they come back to the song until they find the letter and so they can spell it. The game I am explaining today it helps with that, it allows our students to learn to spell without bearing in mind the alphabet order. 

The game is really simple, it consists on finding the letters that the teacher will say. You can put all the flashcards around the classroom and so they have to stand up and find them. The game is really simple but if you add a story and some extra material you can make simplicity look like a very elaborated game. In order to make it different I used the flashcards that Hip Hop Hen shared with me. 

Then, you can start the game by telling an invented story which explains the reason about the existence of alphabet flies. For example, you can tell them these flies just exist in the alphabet town but they have run away. You can create a story according to your students and even connect it with other activities they are doing in the school. This will depend on your imagination and creativity. Once you have introduced the alphabet flies and you have your students attention, you can explain them that they will have to swap the flies that the teacher will say. For example, if the teacher says "A" everybody will have to find this fly and swap it. The first one to do it wins. You can add points or children can keep the flies they swap. This will give them a plus of motivation. 

While they are playing, they are learning to spell the letters. Maybe they won't know the letter "E" at the beginning but at the third time they perfectly know it. The fact they want to find it before the rest of their classmates makes them be more aware of how the letter is spell it. 

Now when I ask them to spell a word it's easier than it was before. 

Thank you very much Hip Hop Hen for sending me your flashcards!! They were really helpful. I recommend your webside and your tablet Apps for learning. ( http://hiphophen.com/ ) 

“Play is our brain’s favorite way of learning.” - Diane Ackerman

Emma. 

Drawing students' attention

How to draw our students attention and improve their interest in the task? 

It is very difficult to get the children's attention, specially through an L2, a language they don't understand at all and they don't have any personal reason to learn it. When this attention doesn't exist, then, it's very difficult they learn the language. 

An effective way to draw their attention is having in mind their interests, what they like. 

Today I'm going to explain you an example that happened in my P5 English class (preschool education, learning an L2) when dealing with the clothes vocabulary. 

In the second session in which we were working these vocabulary, I showed them some clothes flaschards. In order to learn the vocabulary and to practise the listening skill I said to them some clothes and they had to point them. Some kids were interested in the activity, but others weren't paying attention. They said to me: 

"Teacher, I'm bored.." or "I don't like this game..."

After that I decided to create some new flashcards, but this time a bit different, using their favourite films characters. Their interest and attention in front of the task increased a lot. The task was exactly the same but the fact that the clothes were worn by their favourite characters changed everything. Everybody was perfectly following the activity, and in addition, they didn't want to stop playing. Even some kids started to describe their favourite character's clothes on their own: 

"Teacher, Elsa is wearing a blue dress!" "Gru is wearing a scarf" "T-shirt?... Peter Pan!!!" "Sadness has got a jumper!"

At the end of the game we had worked clothes and colours. I'm sure some of them learnt more vocabulary in this 10 minutes game, than during the other 50 minutes left, just because of the game presentation. 

When we personalise our students learning the results are always much more effective. The material used and the way we present them is really important. 

Emma.

Taller de St. Jordi

Avui a la classe de 1r i 2n ens hem convertit en dracs bons per salvar la princesa de les urpes del drac malvat. 

Per tal de transormar-nos en dracs hem realitzat un taller de manualitats per crear un barret amb les punxes del drac com el que podeu observar a la fotografia. 

A continuació explicaré el procediment per realitzar-lo

MATERIAL: 

- Papers de color verd ( 3 x nen)

- Cartolina verda ( 1 per 8 nens aprox.)

- Pegament, tisores, grapadora i cinta adhesiva. 

PROCEDIMENT: 

1) Dibuixem els triangles al full de paper, si el posem horitzontal en podrem dibuixar 3 per full, seguint les mesures i la plantilla següent: 

Altura del triangle: 9cm.

Base del triangle: 8cm.

Altura del rectangle central: 3cm. 

2) Una vegada dibuixats els retallem i els dobleguem per les línies vermelles del dibuix anterior. 

3) Per altra banda realitzem la forma del barret amb cartolina verda. Per realitzar les tires farem servir les mides següents: 

Llargada de la cartolina A3 x 3cm.

Aquesta serà la tira on s'enganxaran les punxetes. Pel que fa a la tira que rodeja el cap dependrà de cada nen, aproximadament serà la meitat de la tira anterior. 

4) Un cop les tires estan retallades, i com podeu veure a la següent fotografia, les enganxarem de manera perpendicular amb l'ajuda de grapes i/o cinta adhesiva. 

5) Finalment enganxarem els triangles ja doblegats a la tira vertical del barret. Posarem pega al rectangle que ens queda com a base del triangle i l'enganxarem com s'aprecia a la fotografia anterior. Per últim posarem una mica de pega a la punxeta del triangle per tal de subjectar les dues parts. Realitzarem aquest pas fins cobrir tota la tira vertical del nostre barret de drac. 

6) Algunes modificacions que podeu fer és: la tira més llarga, triangles més grans o més petits, etc. 

Espero que l'activitat us hagi agradat, els nens s'ho van passar molt bé fent els barrets i jugant a ser dracs.

Bona diada de St. Jordi a tothom!

EMMA. 

Learning the body parts with monsters

Hi teachers, today I have some interesting activities to learn the body parts through monsters to share with you. They are successful in preschool and 1st grade, even though you can adapt them at the level you want by adding more or less difficulty. 

BUILDING A MONSTER: 

As you can see in the photo, students are given some body parts and a monster body. The activity aim is to build a monster to learn the body parts names. In order to do so, we have some variations or difficulty levels: 

a) The teacher guides them to create a monster  by saying them what parts of the body the monster has got. 

For example: "Build a monster with three green eyes, one mouth, three blue legs and two pink arms"

b) The kid builds his/her own monster and after that s/he has to explain to the teacher or their classmates what parts of the body his/her monster has got. 

c) Children work in pairs, one student gives the directions to create a monster to his/her peer. When they finish they change the roles. 

Skills worked: listening and speaking

Key competences into practise: 

- Linguistic and audio-visual competence

- Cultural and artistic competence

- Mathematic competence 

- Learning to learn competence

- Autonomy, initiative and decision taking competence

Multiple intelligences in use: 

- Linguistic

- Mathematical

- Visual 

Other vocabulary required: numbers, colours, adjectives (if we want to put more difficulty), ...

Expressions or verbs needed: "It has got..."

  

DRAW YOUR OWN MONSTER: 

In this activity the students have to imagine and draw a monster, they have to put them a name and complete the questions, answering how many eyes, mouths, arms and legs their monster has got. Moreover, they have to write a big and small body part their monster has got. 

Skills worked: Reading and writing 

Key competences into practise:

- Linguistic and audio-visual competence

- Cultural and artistic competence

- Mathematic competence 

- Learning to learn competence

- Autonomy, initiative and decision taking competence

Multiple intelligences in use: 

- Linguistic

- Mathematical

- Visual 

Other vocabulary required: numbers, adjectives: big and small. 

Expressions or verbs needed: "It has got..."

They really enjoy dealing with monsters and they have had lots of fun doing the previous activities. Children were motivated which is essential to learn English. In addition, they worked the creativity and imagination an important aspect in the society we live in. 

Emma. 

Let's cook

Hi guys, avui m'agradaria compartir amb vosaltres algunes experiències de cuina a l'escola. Durant els darrers trimestres a l'aula d'anglès he realitzat alguns tallers de cuina, els quals estan estretament lligats amb allò que estàvem treballant a la unitat d'anglès (Vocabulari, expressions, cultura, etc.). A continuació en podeu veure el resultat d'alguns d'ells: 

Cooking Easter Rabbits

INGREDIENTS: 

- Pa de motlle

- Formatge

- Olives negres

RELACIONAT AMB: 

- Easter (Pasqua) 

- Vocabulari d'animals 

- Vocabulari del menjar 

- Parts del cos. 

- Formes geomètriques

ALGUNES DE LES EXPRESSIONS UTILITZADES:

- "Let's cut its ears"

- "Put an olive for the nose"

- "Cut four or six cheese lines for the whiskers"

- "Make a circle of bread for the face"

Cooking a very hungry Caterpillar

INGREDIENTS: 

- Raïm 

- Maduixes

- Pera 

- Boletes de xocolata

RELACIONAT AMB: 

- El conte: "The very hungry caterpillar"

- Vocabulari del menjar 

- Vocabulari d'animals

- Parts del cos. 

- Números

ALGUNES DE LES EXPRESSIONS UTILITZADES: 

- "Cut the grapes in a half"

- "Use more than 6 grapes for the body"

- "Put three chocolate drops on the strawberry for the eyes and nose"

L'experiència va ser molt positiva, tots els nens/es s'ho van passar d'allò més bé. Però, a part de gaudir de l'activitat van aprendre moltes coses. No nomès aprenen a cuinar i/o els beneficis d'una alimentació saludable sinó que també aprenen anglès d'una altra manera. 

Segons Julie Negrin (2010) cuinar a l'aula aporta molts beneficis com l'aprenentatge de la ciència, matemàtiques, llengua, motricitat fina, art, una aproximació a altres cultures, etc. 

Així doncs, analitzant aquests beneficis des de l'òptica educativa actual podríem entendre que cuinar és una activitat competencial on podem desenvolupar sobretot les següents competències: 

- Competència comunicativa 

- Competència artística i visual 

- Competència matemàtica

- Competència d'aprendre a aprendre

- Competpència d'autonomia i iniciativa personal

- Competència en el coneixement i la interacció amb el món físic. 

Cuinar no és un contingut en el currículum d'educació del nostre país però pot ser una activitat molt interessant per treballar d'una manera més competencial i a la vegada divertida. Ensenyant als nostres alumnes a aprendre de les coses més bàsiques de la vida quotidiana. 

EMMA. 

Science in English

Bon dia, m'agradaria compartir una experiència AICLE (CLIL) a l'aula d'extraescolars d'anglès. 

La setmana passada vaig realitzar un taller de science en anglès amb nens i nenes de 1r i 2n de primària. 

Vaig arribar a l'aula amb un plat amb aigua i una moneda i els vaig demanar com traurien la moneda sense mullar-se (How can you take the coin without getting wet?), l'únic que podien fer servir era una espelma i un got. 

Les hipòtesis eren molt variades i interessants: 

Encenem l'espelma i l'aigua es mourà.

Traiem la moneda amb el got. 

Un cop van fer les seves hipòtesis i vam treballar el vocabulari necessari amb la llengua anglesa vam procedir a fer l'experiment. 

Els va agradar molt, tots volien tornar-lo a repetir i observar que estava passant. Mentre això tenia lloc anàvem repassant el vocabulari i allò que succeïa en anglès (The water comes into the glass, there is water in the glass, the coin is getting dry...). 

Desprès de repetir l'experiment dos o tres vegades vam plasmar-lo al paper: 

Realitzar una activitat com aquesta en una altra llengua sempre té unes dificultats afegides però el que aconseguim és captar l'atenció de l'alumnat i especialment la necessitat d'utilitzar l'idioma, ja que les classes són 100% en anglès. 

Possiblement no van entendre el 100% del que anàvem explicant en anglès però del que sí estic completament segura és que van intentar utilitzar l'anglès el màxim possible, i que les accions i vocabulari bàsic va ser adquirit d'una manera molt diferent que estudiant-ho des del llibre de text. Va esdevenir un aprenentatge molt més significatiu. 

Així, l'objectiu d'aquestes sessions és principalment que els nens gaudeixin amb la llengua anglesa i que en tinguin interès per aprendre-la. Davant un experiment com l'anterior els nens tenen un interès per parlar-lo i entendre'l ja que la curiositat de saber que està passant és gegant. 

Fins aviat, 

Emma.